Tai Dye (Reborn)
by Digicowboy
Summary: Tai Kamiya, leader of the Digidestined, dies in a road accident. How will his wife and friends cope, and what lies on the other side of Death? As angsty as you're likely to get from me.


Tai Dye  
  
Just to let you know, this is the melancholy fic that everyone seems to write at some point or another. I just thought I'd get it out of the way so that I can get back to writing more light hearted stuff. Well, mostly light hearted. I'll see how well this one goes down . It deals with death, life, and what comes afterwards. There is Taiora, there is Takari, and very briefly a petrol tanker , which plays a small but relevant bit in this story. And if you don't like it……..Why did you carry on reading it? Silly person.  
  
Disclaimer: Maybe in another life I would have owned Digimon, and maybe in that live you and I would have been family and spent our spare time selling miracle cures and working in our own restaurant, and in the evenings we could have retired to the pool. But it isn't like that, is it?  
  
"Death, and afterwards."  
  
A blinding flash, a pain so intense it was hardly pain at all, a brief glimpse of orange and yellow and black and red, and then…..Silence. Total silence, and total, utter peace. Tai looked around. As far as he could see, there was no colour anywhere. Just white, stretching out into infinity. There was no floor, no ceiling, no walls, no anything. No boundaries to stop him, no ties to keep him. But he stayed where he was. He knew he was waiting, but for what he did not know. He seemed to be remembering more now, his brain working faster. He thought back, and he grimaced. How ironic that he, Taichi Kamiya, one time leader of the Digidestined, having faced more danger in weeks than most people experience in a lifetime, before being happily married to Sora, should be killed in a car accident. But, he corrected himself, not just any car accident. A tanker full of petrol had jack-knifed across the road, smashing into his car. Sparks flew, as sparks are wont to do in these situations, and the resulting explosion had blossomed like a rose opening, destroying his car…  
  
"And you, of course." Said a voice from behind him. Tai looked around slowly. It wasn't as if he had any pressing need to hurry now, was it? Behind him stood a young man, who looked rather pleasant. He was smartly dressed, and seemed friendly enough.  
  
"Who are you?" questioned Tai.  
  
" That was your death. I am what comes afterwards." Tai looked interested.  
  
"This is the part where my life flashes in front of my eyes, isn't it?"  
  
"No."  
  
"No?"  
  
"No. That's called living. This is how your life passed in front of the eyes of other people……."  
  
Tk slowly walked with a grieving Kari, and the rest of the original Digidestined. He put his arm around his wife's shoulder, holding her gently. He would have hugged her, but her pregnancy prevented that to any large extent.  
  
"It was a beautiful service, wasn't it?" Kari nodded mutely, too sad to speak, and blinded by her tears.  
  
"Do you think Sora will be okay?" Questioned Izzy. Tk thought.  
  
"Maybe….But we should stay with her. Not leave her alone. Visit her. Kari and I will help look after Matt." Tai and Sora had only had one child, and had decided to call it Matt after their mutual friend, and their best man at their wedding. Tk sighed.  
  
"He's looking down on us, and I think he'd want us to carry on living our lives." Matt nodded.  
  
"He would, wouldn't he? Come on. Lets go see Sora…"  
  
Tai stared ahead into the blank, featureless distance. The man – let us call him Death- looking over his shoulder. The presentation, or whatever it was, had finished. To Tai, it had seemed to last both a second, and an eternity.  
  
"That was it. Those that loved you, and those that hated you. Those still alive, and those who have gone this way before you."  
  
"Yes….. I don't regret any of it, mind you. There were things that had to be said, and I said them. There were things that had to be done, and I did them."  
  
"True." Death looked down at him, a sad smile hovering around his lips. Tai looked up.  
  
"So what happens now? Is there an afterlife?"  
  
"Yes. But what happens now….. Is up to you…"  
  
"How are you, Sora?" Questioned Mimi, looking at her friend in a concerned manner.  
  
"I'll make it Mimi. I'll make it. For Matt's sake." Mimi nodded, and put her arms around Sora. Sora trembled, and then, like a dam bursting, collapsed into Mimi's arms sobbing and wailing. Mimi held her, making soothing noises, rocking her gently, as she would one of her children.  
  
"Oh, Mimi….it isn't fair! He never even reached thirty-five!" It was true. Tai had been on his way home from work when it had happened. Mimi had been among the first on the scene, as she had now got a job as a television news reporter. Making that report had been the hardest thing she had ever tried to do, and she wasn't able to maintain her impartiality when she had discovered who it was who had been killed. Then Sora, Kari and Tk had arrived on the scene, and Mimi had been unable to continue. Tk and Kari entered the room, and Tk mouthed the words "How is she?" Mimi smiled sadly. One of the worst problems was with Sora's crest. The crest of Love. She had loved Tai with all her heart, and now he was gone. The crest seemed somehow to amplify her sorrow, and her pain. The newer Digidestined had gone into the digital world soon after the funeral, to spread the word. Yolie had reported that Agumon had seemed to have vanished. Suddenly, Kari's face contorted, and she doubled up.  
  
"Kari? Are you alright?" Asked Tk worriedly. She nodded.  
  
"I think…it's the baby. It's coming, Tk."  
  
Tai was thinking. He had been thinking for quite some time now. Or he seemed to. There was no way to measure time here. Death watched him silently from a respectful distance.  
  
"Have you come to a decision?" Tai looked up.  
  
"Yes…I have. I want to go back. I want to see Sora again. I want to see my friends again, and my family. I want to be around them. Is that possible?" Death smiled, and this time it was a warm smile.  
  
"Yes. It is very possible Tai. In fact, it's a certainty." As Tai watched, the figure of Death seemed to begin to fade away.  
  
"Tell me Tai…Do you believe in reincarnation?"  
  
Kari stirred in her bed at the hospital. She felt exhausted, but that wasn't surprising. Tk smiled down at her nervously.  
  
"How do you feel, Kari? The others just got here." Kari raised her head. There they were. Sora, Izzy, Matt, Mimi, Davis, Cody, Yolie, and Ken. And…..  
  
"Mum? Is that you?" Kari's mother smiled down at her.  
  
"It's me, Kari. I'm proud of you, honey." The doors opened, and Joe walked in. This was the hospital he worked in, and he had helped deliver the baby. He had a small bundle of blankets in his arms.  
  
"Congratulations, Kari." He smiled. "It's a boy." Kari reached out with trembling arms, taking the baby in her arms.  
  
"Look, Tk. It's a boy. Our boy. Our Taichi…." The baby looked up at her with joy in its eyes, and a spark of recognition briefly seemed to glitter in it's eyes for the tiniest fraction of a second. Tk put his arms around his gentle, beautiful wife, and looked down at their baby.  
  
"Yes Kari. Our Taichi. Our Tai…"  
  
And at the back of the room, a young man, soberly dressed and seemingly friendly enough. No-one noticed him, but in truth, he was not there. He smiled at the baby, turned, and faded away. You will see him again.  
  
This version of Tai Dye is noticeably different from the first posting. It's staying as a single chapter story as was originally intended. This was the first one I posted, (And I think one of my faves) and I was so chuffed to get nice reviews that I folded and made more chapters. Which I think made it a bit… 'carpy'. So it stays just like this. Thank you for reading.  
  
DC (Reborn) 


End file.
